It's a good exchange for the Republican candidate. Santorum's sharp and fiery when Rose tries to get him to explain Foster Friess's apparently controversial remarks on contraception that the funder made yesterday on MSNBC.

The TV host responds: "No one’s saying your responsible, senator. They’re asking how you would characterize it and what you said to him. Not that you were responsible. It’s to understand how you differ from what this person said."

"So now I’m gonna have to respond to when every supporter says something?" Santorum responds. "Look, this is what you guys do. You don’t do this with President Obama. In fact, with President Obama, you went out and defended him from someone he sat in a church for 20 years and defended him with, 'Oh, he can’t possibly believe what he listened to for 20 years.' This is a double standard, it’s what you’re pulling off, and I’m gonna call you on it."

By the way, you wouldn't know it from Rose, but Friess released a rather charming apology this morning. "After listening to the segment tonight, I can understand how I confused people with the way I worded the joke and their taking offense is very understandable," the Santorum backer said on his blog. "To all those who took my joke as modern day approach I deeply apologize and seek your forgiveness. My wife constantly tells me I need new material—she understood the joke but didn’t like it anyway—so I will keep that old one in the past where it belongs."